Rory’s Story

Her daughter’s father threatened to file for full custody

Hailey, Rory’s seven year-old daughter, has only met her father a handful of times, not because her mother forbade her to, but because he was not present.

Rory and Justin had never married, but Rory has made an effort to incorporate him into Hailey’s life as best as possible, even if it means building a father-daughter relationship over the phone.

Rory did not fully understand the process of obtaining child support and thus subjected Justin to a sup-par payment plan. Justin was out of state at the time and claimed that child support would hinder his business. For the sake of civility, Justin and Rory came to a verbal agreement: Justin would pay a certain amount each month for child support. Months came and went without so much as a penny paid to support Hailey.

This negligence is further perpetuated by his inconsistent presence. Against her mother’s will, Justin only calls when it is convenient for him. Hailey protests every time she must go with her dad because to her he is just another stranger.

“With the help of Open Door Legal, Rory was able to receive full physical custody and joint legal custody of her daughter.”

Rory’s case was taken in by Open Door Legal because she could not afford a private attorney. Upon hearing that Rory was seeking legal action, Justin contacted Rory and pleaded for a private, verbal agreement. He wants to pay the minimum amount — again. When Rory refused, Justin threatened to file for full custody of Hailey.

With the help of Open Door Legal, Rory was able to receive full physical custody and joint legal custody of her daughter. Justin is also subject to pay a fair amount per month in order to cover his daughter’s private school tuition and medical costs. Furthermore, Rory is relieved to have reached a suitable arrangement for both her daughter and herself.

This story was written by volunteer Jasmine Ayala, April 2016.

*The name and photos have been changed to protect the client’s identity.

Philip Green

Belinda Liu

Sil Liapis

Elder Law Attorney

(415) 610-5991
sil@opendoorlegal.org

Hannah Wischnia

Engagement Associate

(415) 906-0578
hannah@opendoorlegal.org

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Our Story

Our organization started when we realized that it was in fact possible to ensure universal access to civil representation for everyone. For years, we had watched existing legal aid nonprofits turn away more people than they helped. We had seen the government grossly underfund legal aid and attach ever-more restrictions on who could be helped. We had witnessed the private sector invest atrociously little of its accumulated wealth into legal aid.

The result of this is predictable: legal aid has become the least resourced social need in the United States. Most low and moderate-income Americans can’t get help, and as a result can’t properly enforce their rights.

We realized that by combining program innovations, new strategies for generating earned income, and a focus on fundraising from the general public we could create a system that solved this massive problem and guaranteed access to legal representation for everyone in a community, on every issue.

We decided to prototype this system in Bayview/Hunters Point because it was the only high-need neighborhood of San Francisco without a legal aid office in the neighborhood. In late 2012 we raised about $8,000 in seed funding from some generous private donors and decided to put our theories to the test.

We opened our doors on January 7th, 2013. In our first year, our core staff worked tirelessly on minimum wage to deliver services to dozens of clients. The heating in the office didn’t work, the furniture was rotten, and we couldn’t afford a receptionist. We had to scrounge office supplies and equipment from people we knew.

But we proved that our model could work. We never turned away someone for services who lived in the local community, and by rigorously tracking our outcomes we were able to get more and more support from people that hadn’t funded legal aid before. We tripled our budget between our first and second year and tripled it again in our third year.

We’ve come a long way since the days when we had to hand shred everything because we couldn’t afford a shredder. We’re excited by what the future can bring and look forward to growing our model out to encompass more and more people.

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